


Until We Get It Right

by Jeiidaan, rynoa29



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Groundhog Day, M/M, Mystery, Slow Burn, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29155122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeiidaan/pseuds/Jeiidaan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rynoa29/pseuds/rynoa29
Summary: Renzou notices something is off immediately. It takes Yukio a little longer than that to realize it. When the two of them become aware that the day keeps repeating itself, and that they are the only two who seem to remember it, they begin to spend more time together than they’re used to as they try to figure out how to get things back to normal.
Relationships: Okumura Yukio/Shima Renzou
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hahah.... yet another WIP, whaaat?? No schedule for this one either. Just couldn't resist writing about this trope!!! We're having a ton of fun with this one, hope you enjoy!

Renzou noticed something was off almost right away.

Despite the fact that he didn’t pay much attention in class, he did pay attention to his _classmates._ Whatever lecture his teachers were going on about was far less interesting to him than the gossip he could pick up by listening to the conversations going on around him. And that was why he noticed something strange was going on.

“Who are you going to ask to the dance?” Hiroshi was whispering from the seat two rows behind him. 

Renzou glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes, furrowing his brow. He caught sight of Tanimoto glancing over at their teacher before leaning close to whisper back a response.

“Don’t ask! I’m already dying of nerves as it is. I don’t wanna think about it!”

“Oh, come on! Just tell me! You already know who I’m gonna ask!”

“Who doesn’t? Dude, she’s gonna reject you, don’t even bother.”

“Ouch! You don’t have to come at me like that, jeez.”

At first, he thought it was simply deja vu. It was an exchange normal enough between his classmates, maybe that was why it felt so familiar. But then lunch came around, and as he caught sight of Konekomaru, Ryuuji’s absence became alarmingly noticeable.

“Hey, where’s Bon at?”

“Ah, he said not to worry about him today. He’s—” 

“At the library, hittin’ the books again?”

“Oh, so you knew already.”

Renzou maintained a straight face as he sat down next to his childhood friend. “Nah. Just figured it was somethin’ like that. What’re you having for lunch?”

Renzou had gotten curry from the cafeteria yesterday, so today he had gotten the special lunch set that included dumplings and grilled chicken. What he had really wanted to eat were the burgers that were on the menu this week, but even yesterday, the line to it had been enormous. 

“Actually, I’m not really feeling hungry today. I think I’m catchin’ a cold,'' Konekomaru confessed with a slight frown. 

_You said that yesterday too_ , Renzou thought to himself, staying silent. There was a bubbling sense of incredulity rising beneath his skin. He watched Konekomaru reach into his backpack and knew then, with certainty, that the shorter teen was taking out an energy drink.

“I hope it goes away quickly… I stopped by the nurse before coming here and she said I could head back to the dorm, but—”

 _But you wanted to keep me company since Bon wasn’t planning to show up,_ Renzou finished mentally as Konekomaru voiced the same words. Renzou wondered if he had gained the power to read minds overnight. Was something like that even possible? Maybe he was just still asleep. 

_What the hell’s going on here?_

When Konekomaru wasn’t paying attention to him, Renzou pinched himself and winced. So that ruled that out. His next natural conclusion was that this had to be some Mephisto-related weird time thing. It was the only thing that made sense. And his suspicions were somewhat proven correct when he tried to contact the headmaster after school and his call refused to connect.

Right. Okay. Well, it wasn’t like that always worked anyway. The headmaster was eccentric to the end and liked to communicate through the weirdest ways. Just the other week, he had arranged a meeting with him by sticking a love letter in his shoe box. When Renzou had seen one of the same in Rin’s more recently, he had internally sympathized with his disgust and disappointment. 

_[Hi, Sir Pheles. Do you think we could meet? I think there’s something weird going on.]_

Just in case, Renzou sent him a text message. But if the demon king was the one behind this in the first place, he suspected he wasn't going to get a response back at all. He wondered if this was some sort of test. Was there something he wanted Renzou to notice? Or maybe something that he had done wrong yesterday? 

_Like what?_

Nothing particularly interesting had happened yesterday—or today, he supposed. Moreover, Mephisto seemed more like the type to amuse himself with the sight of other people’s mistakes, so the idea of him doing this for Renzou’s sake felt far too benevolent to consider. Maybe he was just playing a prank on him then. 

What day was it supposed to be anyway? Renzou couldn’t honestly remember. He let the days fly by him with only the weekend coming and going to mark the passage of time. A glance at his calendar application told him it was Wednesday. Which… boy, did he hope just then and there that this phenomenon was going to be a one time thing only because having to repeat multiple Wednesday’s sounded like a genuine nightmare. 

As he waited for Mephisto to answer, despite having little expectations of receiving back a response, Renzou decided to go about his day in an extra vigilant manner. Konekomaru had gone to rest in their room after lunch, but Renzou knew he wouldn’t miss out on attending cram school. It would be a welcome surprise if he did, given the situation.

But indeed, just as he had remembered, Konekomaru was back to his usual self as he sat down on Ryuuji’s opposite side when they settled in for their first class that afternoon. Last time, Renzou hadn’t bothered to make a comment about this, but he figured he might as well needle his friend a little this time around. 

“Thanks for ditchin’ us today, by the way. Koneko-san almost passed out durin’ lunch, yanno. I could’ve used a hand gettin’ him back to to our room, earlier.”

Immediately, Ryuuji’s head swiveled to look at Konekomaru, who met his sudden concern with a quick protest. 

“No, I didn’t! Shima-san, don’t exaggerate. It was just a headache and an itchy throat and I got back to the dorm just fine on my own. I’m fine already. Really, Bon.”

“You sure you don’t wanna go rest some more? I can lend ya my notes later,” Ryuuji said, frowning worriedly.

Konekomaru shook his head. “I’m here already, and like I said, it’s not a big deal. You shouldn’t tease people like that.” He addressed the last bit to Renzou directly, looking at him disapprovingly.

Renzou met the expression with a sly grin. 

“Oh, come on. You and I both know the only reason Bon went to hide in the library was to avoid gettin’ asked out at lunch again.”

“That wasn’t why!” Ryuuji protested loudly, and they continued to bicker regarding the topic until it was time for class to start.

That little exchange aside, the day continued to repeat itself, beat by beat, killing off the slightest doubt that had still been considering this to be nothing more than a crazy dream or a coincidence. Renzou almost felt like just getting up from his seat and leaving the classroom, and damn the consequences, just because of how off putting the whole thing was, but he had no guarantee that this wasn’t a one time phenomenon. Prisoner to this uncertainty, he continued on with his original plan and paid close attention to everything that was going on around him. 

As usual, Rin was trying his hardest not to fall asleep at the front of the class, an effort that Shiemi tried to assist him with by poking him from time to time while she paid close attention to the ongoing lecture. The days where she used to become easily flustered by something that went over her head during class had come and gone, that was for sure. She had become as dedicated a student as the majority of their classmates and had the grades to show for it. Rin was the only one lagging behind these days, though Renzou wasn’t faring much better, a consequence of his own lack of interest rather than a matter of trying and failing. 

_She’s really come a long way… On the other hand, Izumo-chan’s just about the same as usual._ For the most part anyway. She had thawed a little over time, but she continued to keep her guard up with everyone except Paku. Renzou understood why more than anyone else and couldn’t fault her for it. Plus, there was something comforting about that consistency, and it only made it more amusing for him to poke fun at her and watch her slip. 

_And then there’s him..._ The only other unchanging constant in the class was the one guy Renzou couldn’t figure out. Mephisto had said there was nothing special or suspicious about Takara, just that he was a peculiar student, but the fact that somehow he kept falling under Renzou’s radar constantly gave him the creeps. He eyed him now out of the corner of his eye, almost wishing the weird puppet would make a comment on the strange situation they were all in, but to his disappointment, nothing of the sort happened. Renzou held back a sigh.

It really was a day like any other, so why was he living through it again?

He tried to distract himself from the growing anxiety in his gut. It got to the point where paying attention to Adachi’s boring lesson regarding the evolution of demons over the last two decades was more appealing to him than trying to slack off, given that the latter only had him circling back to the problem at hand. Predictably, his unexpected focus caught the attention of his childhood friends. Despite the fact that he couldn’t be bothered to take notes, seeing him actively listening had both Ryuuji and Konekomaru glancing at him with both curiosity and relieved smiles. Renzou just barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

He was rewarded, at least, with a new wave of dialogue after cram school was over.

“Nice to see ya finally start to take things seriously,” Ryuuji told him later, with a slap to his back that had Renzou stumbling forward.

“Ouch. Is that supposed to encourage me to do better?” he said dryly as he straightened back up.

Ryuuji snorted. “If that’s all it takes to trip you up, you better start joinin’ me in the gym. If I can take you down that easily, I’d hate to see how you’ll handle yourself against stronger demons.”

“Okay, _now_ you’re askin’ too much of me.”

“It’s not a bad idea, Shima-san. You really should switch meisters and give Knight a try instead. It suits you better,” Konekomaru said encouragingly.

Renzou waved off the suggestion just as much as he had the first time around. “Maybe next year. It’s a little too late in the game to be changing tracks anyway,” he said non-committedly.

“I don’t know why you didn’t just sign up in the first place…” Konekomaru sighed. “Are you sure you’ll be okay, continuin’ on like this?” 

“Don’t worry so much about it! It’ll work out one way or another.” 

“In other words, you don’t care if you pass or not,” Ryuuji deadpanned, and Renzou couldn’t really deny it.

 _School is kind of at the bottom of my list. Won’t do me any use in the long run,_ he thought to himself, but that wasn’t the sort of thing that he could go around admitting out loud. 

Ryuuji must have read some of it from his expression though because he was frowning in that busybody way of his. “Tch. Keep slackin’ off like usual, and you’ll regret it when it’s Kinzou that’s grabbin’ you for a spar,” he said, which made Renzou grimace immediately in response. 

“Ugh. Please don’t bring him up without warning. In fact, don’t bring him up at all. He’s like a mindreading r-roach.” He shuddered. “One moment, his ears’ll be ringing ‘cause someone’s talking about him, and the next thing you know he’ll be here and we won’t be able to get rid of him at all.”

“He’s not _that_ bad,” Konekomaru murmured, a protest quiet enough to go ignored, except it was also one that Renzou simply could not accept, not when he had a list of reasons to elaborate on why exactly Kinzou _was_ that bad.

The evening passed quickly with this easy back and forth, and Renzou almost fooled himself into forgetting that there was something wrong now that things had fallen out of the routine that had plagued him all day. 

But then they had dinner, and Ryuuji broke the same cup that he had broken yesterday when he was taking his empty tray of food to the trash disposal. The sound of the glass crashing loudly against the floor echoed in the forefront of Renzou’s mind and as he stared at the scattered shards, he felt his face lose a shade of color. He had such a hard time gaining back his composure that when his friends asked him what was wrong, he had to pretend that he might be catching Konekomaru’s cold. 

That night, as Renzou settled down on his bed, the knot of anxiety that had loosened earlier slowly began to tighten again. He felt far too awake to fall asleep. He kept trying to recall every aspect about his day, comparing the little differences from ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’, as if somehow, he could figure out whatever it was he was supposed to figure out. But somehow, despite feeling so wired, his eyelids eventually fell shut with a heavy exhaustion, and as he drifted off, he faintly wondered if tomorrow everything would be back to normal.


	2. Chapter 2

Yukio’s day started off as normal.

A particularly strong snore from his brother stirred him from his rest mere seconds before his alarm went off. It happened more often than Yukio would like to admit. It was, in fact, the third day in a row and it had Yukio rolling off the bed with a sneer. He turned off his alarm, walked heavily across the room, and snatched the covers off Rin hard enough to send the half demon careening to the floor. He woke up with a routine sort of yell and complaint that had Yukio ignoring him immediately.

It was nothing he hadn’t heard before.

Yukio left the room and headed down the hallway to the sink to begin freshening up for the day. Rin soon followed, still complaining.

“Can’t you wake me up normally?!” He whined.

“The alarm is supposed to wake you up normally.” Yukio grumbled, his voice not fully working quite yet as he grabbed his shaving cream. “The fact that I need to wake you up should be unnecessary.”

Rin made a dubious sort of noise that told Yukio his brother knew he was right, but he still wanted to complain about it. Yukio rolled his eyes and began preparing to shave. Since Rin needed no such thing, he finished and headed down the stairs to the kitchen first, as was routine. 

That week, he wasn’t attending class. Due to the shortage of exorcists, they had been ill equipped to handle the sudden influx of issues that had come in from strangers seeking help for non-emergency demons. As such, he had gotten permission from the school due to his situation and his high academic standing to take the week off for work.

Well, the mornings, at least. The afternoons, he had to return to school for a few hours to help lead his class in the preparation for the coming festival. By popular vote, they were doing a puzzle escape room and so there were plenty of props and parts to prepare and organize. 

He had a long day ahead of him and it was precisely on these kinds of days that Yukio wondered if he should skip breakfast. He had done so yesterday and received an earful about it over dinner from Rin. Perhaps he should’ve skipped both. Yukio sighed as he shrugged on his uniform in the empty bedroom. He should just save the money and eat whatever Rin cooked. Buying groceries would always be cheaper than convenience store meals and while convenience store meals weren’t exactly expensive, they would be if he kept buying them for every meal while providing groceries. Extra food for lunch was enough.

So with that decision made, Yukio walked down the stairs and headed to the dining area of the old boy’s dorm. He sat down in his usual spot as Rin placed down the cooked food. 

“Make sure you eat everything,” Rin instructed, placing his rice beside his plate. 

“I know.” Yukio picked up the rice first and put a bite in his mouth before starting on the fish. He paused as soon as it hit his mouth and furrowed his brow. There was a slightly spicy quality to its flavor. “This is…”

“Ah, you noticed?” Rin beamed, sitting across from him. “I found a new seasoning when I went grocery shopping the other day.” He put a bite of fish in his mouth and made a thoughtful look. “Dunno if I’m gonna use it for breakfast again though. It’s pretty strong. Maybe better for dinner food.” 

Yukio gave Rin a look before shaking his head and returning to his food. Perhaps Rin was looking to get some sort of reaction out of him because this was definitely the same kind of seasoning Rin had used the day before yesterday. Yukio frowned. Or maybe he was just remembering wrong. Rin seemed certain. 

“I suppose so. You’re the cook,” was all he said in the end. 

“Yeah, but do you like it?” Rin prompted.

“It’s fine.”

Breakfast was finished not long after and Yukio immediately set on his way. He arrived at his shift a little earlier than usual due to purposefully not stopping to buy something on the way. He was able to, then, choose the station he preferred. It was a little off to the side, rather than the front and center desk that people seemed to mostly flock to. On the one hand, the distraction was usually welcome. Whenever he had too much time to think, his mind often went in unsavory places, but that day he had decided to get some schoolwork done in between advice requests. 

The past two days, Ryuuji had given him the notes from the classes he’d missed and it was that day that Yukio decided he would put aside time to finally attend to them. However, when he opened his bag, he found that they weren’t there. He was sure he’d put them there. Yukio frowned, taking things out one by one and remembering, perfectly, when Ryuuji had given him the notes, he’d put it straight into a folder in his bag so that he could read through them that morning.

But they weren’t there.

Yukio stared at his empty bag, then the small stack of folders and papers from cram school and exorcist work sitting on his desk, his brow furrowed in confusion. Why? 

He didn’t have much time to think about it, however, as a woman quickly approached his station and Yukio picked up the stack to move it out of the way. 

Maybe he’d picked up the wrong bag that morning. He’d have to make sure to check his other one when he finished his shift. 

Besides that, work passed by rather smoothly. He did some grading work for the cram school instead, something he’d been putting off the past few days due to his busy schedule, but it was work that needed to get done nonetheless. 

As he gathered his things at the end of his shift, he caught a snippet of a familiar voice. The day before, a woman had approached his station when he’d been sitting in the front and center, exactly where that person was now, and complained about a coal tar infestation in her attic. Yukio had given her advice on how to cull the infestation before it got out of hand and informed her that if there were signs of developing Koks, to inform the exorcists immediately. 

He could hear the exorcist speaking to her giving her the same exact advice. Yukio tilted his head before frowning. Had she decided not to take his advice due to his apparent age? It wasn’t an unfamiliar issue he’d come across. Yukio decided to put it out of his mind and head back to his dorm, willing the irritation in his stomach to calm. 

After he changed quickly into his school uniform, he grabbed his other bag and opened it up, but found it empty. 

Yukio’s frown returned and he checked his other bag again, just in case. After ten minutes of searching, however, he knew he’d have to cut it off. He hadn’t found the notes Ryuuji had taken for him and he would have to attend the afternoon session of school very soon. He would just have to apologize to Ryuuji and request another copy. 

This time, he did stop by the convenience store and grabbed an extra couple sandwiches to eat on the way before he sat down in the classroom to eat the lunchbox Rin had packed for him. The rest of his day was routine.

He did some work, was slightly annoyed at a few of his classmates for not keeping yesterday’s work from being lost, and returned to his dorm yet again to change back into his exorcist uniform in preparation for cram school. 

Yukio entered the faculty office and placed his bag down at his desk, pulling out his work to finish up what he’d been doing that morning. He normally didn’t have class until much later in the evening, but he still liked to show up in the faculty office for work just in case they needed him. 

He supposed he was rather happy he did, for no sooner than twenty minutes after he sat down, Adachi approached his desk. 

“Ah, Okumura-kun, sorry to disturb you.” His expression was a mix of concern and hesitance. It caused Yukio to put on his most polite smile.

“No need for apologies. Is there something I can help you with?”

Adachi shook his head. “Just wondering if everything was alright? Do you need me to fill in for your class today?”

“Huh?” Yukio blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Well… Your class was supposed to have started about five minutes ago. It’s Wednesday.”

It was… Wednesday? Yukio pulled out his phone and checked the date. So it was.

“Oh. Oh god. I’m so sorry. I thought it was a completely different day.” He grabbed his things hurriedly, cursing himself silently.

“No, no, it’s alright. I know you’ve been having trouble balancing school and your work, so I really don’t mind taking over the class for a day if you can’t handle it.”

The words, well intentioned as they were, lit a spiteful fire in Yukio’s stomach which made his polite smile all the more sharp.

“No need! A small slip. Won’t happen again. Thank you for alerting me!” He dodged around Adachi without another word and half jogged down the hallway towards the classroom. When he entered, the class’ chatting ended abruptly and Yukio cut off any prospective questions.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he said, moving up to the podium. “But, no time to waste. Everyone, please open your books to page 254. We’ll be continuing where we left off yesterday.”

Yukio opened his own book on the podium before looking out at the class. The first thing he noticed was the hesitance with which a few of the students moved to follow his instructions. Ryuuji, who had his book open already, furrowed his brow and reached forward to change the page. Shiemi was quick to overcome her confusion as well and rushed to follow instructions. Renzou, on the other hand, was staring at him as if he’d grown a second head.

It was Rin who spoke up first. 

“Hold on, wait a sec!” Rin flipped between two pages. “We didn’t cover this stuff yesterday! You said we’d do it today!” 

“What?” Yukio furrowed his brow and walked around to the desk to check the page Rin was attempting to show him. It was familiar and he knew for a fact that he  _ had _ lectured on this subject. He could still remember the questions Rin had thrown at him. “Yes we did.” He wasted no time in correcting his brother. “We did this and I assigned the review questions as homework.” 

“No you didn’t!” Rin replied vehemently. 

“You clearly weren’t paying attention,” Yukio retorted just as stubbornly. “Are you trying to confuse me because you didn’t do your homework?”

“I’m not!” Rin slammed his hands on the desk as he stood, glaring fearlessly into Yukio’s eyes.

“Um, actually, Okumura-sensei!” 

Ryuuji’s voice caught Yukio’s attention and he looked at him. The teen looked hesitant to speak, but the confusion hadn’t abated in the least. “Okumura-kun is right. Ya didn’t cover this yesterday and I don’t remember any homework assignment.”

Yukio stared at him, dumbfounded, especially when Konekomaru beside him nodded in agreement. 

“See?!” Rin insisted, but Yukio was turning away to check his planner.

The notes he’d made the previous day on the assigned homework was gone. He specifically remembered writing them as Rin had peppered him with inane questions.

“But I… I could have sworn…”

His clueless whispering was disrupted as yet another person stood up, his hands on the desk.

“Sensei!” Renzou shouted out, his eyes wide with an almost desperate plea swimming in them. “Don’t tell me, ya remember it?!”


End file.
